1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a seal member and to a charging connector provided therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,602,090 discloses a charging connector connected to ends of wires, such as signal wires and power wires. The wires are pulled into a housing of the charging connector and each wire is connected to a predetermined connecting portion in the housing.
A multi-core cable is formed by bundling wires together and covering the bundled wires with an outer sheath. An end of this multi-core cable then can be pulled into a housing. Water, such as rainwater, may enter the housing and flow into the inside of the outer sheath of the multi-core cable through clearances between the respective wires and may penetrate to a power supply part through the inside of the outer sheath.
Thought has been given to placing a sealant between the wires at the end of the outer sheath to close the clearances and then mounting a heat shrinkable tube or the like on the outer side of the end of the outer sheath to make the end of the outer sheath waterproof. However, the sealant must bond the wires over a significant distance along the longitudinal direction of the wires to reliably close the clearances between the wires reliably. Further, the sealant is expensive and reliably filling the clearances between the respective wires with the sealant is difficult. Therefore sealing is not stable.
The invention was completed in view of the above situation and an object thereof is to waterproof an end of an outer sheath of a cable reliably, inexpensively and without enlarging a waterproof structure.